SCANDALS IN THE CHURCH: THE BISHOPS' CONFERENCE

SCANDALS IN THE CHURCH: THE BISHOPS' CONFERENCE; BISHOPS SET POLICY TO REMOVE PRIESTS IN SEX ABUSE CASES

Published: June 15, 2002

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The bishops' document ''puts a very adversarial relationship between the bishop and the priest,'' Cardinal Dulles said. ''The priest can no longer go to his bishop in confidence with a problem that he has. He has to be very careful what he says to the bishop because the bishop can throw him out of the ministry for his entire life.''

But most other American cardinals, like Bernard F. Law of Boston and Edward M. Egan of New York, voiced support for the document.

Whether the Vatican will support the bishops' new measures remains to be seen. The committee of bishops drafting the policy called the charter a ''pastoral document'' and said all dioceses would be required to follow it. But the bishops do not plan to submit the charter to the Vatican for approval, said Bishop Joseph A. Galante, coadjutor bishop of Dallas and a member of the drafting committee.

The bishops approved a second document of ''norms'' that will be submitted to the Vatican for approval. The norms include all requests for changes in church law that are needed for the American bishops to enact their new policies. Many deal with speeding the process for removing a priest from the ministry.

In asserting that the Vatican would approve their new policies, many bishops cited Pope John Paul II's statement in April that no abusers ought to be allowed to serve in the priesthood. But, as Bishop Gregory said to the bishops discussing Vatican approval this evening, ''I would never go to the Holy See assuming I have a slam dunk.''

At a news conference tonight, Bishop Gregory said that the new national review board, to be led by Governor Keating, would undertake a study of the extent and causes of the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church, including numbers of abusers and victims, and would help police adherence to the new charter.

Other board members named today included Robert S. Bennett, a prominent Washington lawyer who defended President Bill Clinton in the Paula Jones case, and Justice Anne Burke of the Illinois Court of Appeals. Justice Burke is an expert on child welfare issues.

The board will eventually include 15 to 20 more members, and Mr. Keating said that they would include some victims of sexual abuse by priests.

Mr. Keating was asked whether his committee would call on the pope to remove bishops whom it found to have systematically covered up abuses by priests in their dioceses.

''Yes, I think that should be done,'' he replied. ''The reality is that this is not only a horrible sin to do these things, but it is also a criminal act. To suggest that somebody like that would get away in the eyes of the church is inconceivable to me.''

The bishops were plagued by critics who said the new charter had no enforcement mechanism. The bishops tried to respond to that by instituting the national review board, along with regional boards that will monitor the dioceses for compliance.

The charter also calls for every diocese to appoint a review board, mostly of laypeople, to hear accusations of abuse and help bishops decide what measures or penalties are needed for the priests in each case.

Efforts by some bishops to use this crisis to further the favorite causes of the church's right or left flanks were rejected. Bishops turned down an amendment by Auxiliary Bishop Thomas J. Curry of Los Angeles to set up a commission to study increased involvement of laypeople in all aspects of church life, and rejected another by Bishop Fabian Brusketwiz of Lincoln, Neb., calling for an examination of the role of gay priests in the sexual abuse crisis.

Ultimately, the bishops agreed that instituting a no-ministry-for-abusers policy was needed to recover the church's good name.

''It hurts to say I support zero tolerance,'' Cardinal Anthony J. Bevilacqua of Philadelphia said. ''I wish I didn't have to do that. I wish our circumstances were different. But at the same time in our present crisis, we must place the common good of our church first.''

Photos: Cardinals Anthony J. Bevilacqua of Philadelphia, left, and Bernard F. Law of Boston rose to applaud yesterday after the bishops' conference approved a policy to deal with sexual abuse by members of the clergy.; Members of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops marked ballots yesterday in the vote to remove from the ministry any priest who had ever sexually abused a minor. The policy was adopted. (Pool photographs by Eric Gay)(pg. A13); Cardinal Edward M. Egan addressing the bishops yesterday. (Pool photo by Rick Wilking)(pg. A1)